The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of StorySomadeva Bhatta, active 11th century
General
The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
Somadeva Bhatta, active 11th century
Folk literature -- Themes, motives; Hindu mythology; India -- Social life and customs; Tales -- India
The Asura Bána had a daughter, famous under the name of Ushá. And
she propitiated Gaurí, who granted her a boon in order that she might
obtain a husband, saying to her, "He to whom you shall be united in
a dream, shall be your husband." Then she saw in a dream a certain
man looking like a divine prince. She was married by him according
to the Gándharva form of marriage, and after obtaining the joy of
union with him, she woke up at the close of night. When she did not
see the husband she had seen in her dream, but beheld the traces
of his presence, she remembered the boon of Gaurí, and was full of
disquietude, fear, and astonishment. And being miserable without
the husband whom she had seen in her dream, she confessed all to
her friend Chitralekhá, who questioned her. And Chitralekhá, being
acquainted with magic, thus addressed that Ushá, who knew not the
name of her lover nor any sign whereby to recognise him,--"My friend,
this is the result of the boon of the goddess Gaurí, what doubt can
we allege in this matter? But how are you to search for your lover
as he is not to be recognised by any token? I will sketch for you
the whole world, gods, Asuras, and men, in case you may be able to
recognise him; [480] and point him out to me among them, in order
that I may bring him." Thus spoke Chitralekhá, and when Ushá answered
"By all means!" she painted for her with coloured pencils the whole
world in order. Thereupon Ushá exclaimed joyfully, "There he is,"
and pointed out with trembling finger Aniruddha in Dváravatí of the
race of Yadu. Then Chitralekhá said--"My friend, you are fortunate,
in that you have obtained for a husband Aniruddha the grandson of the
adorable Vishnu. But he lives sixty thousand yojanas from here." When
Ushá heard that, she said to her, overpowered by excessive longing,
"Friend, if I cannot to-day repair to his bosom cool as sandal wood,
know that I am already dead, being burnt up with the uncontrollable
fire of love." When Chitralekhá heard this, she consoled her dear
friend, and immediately flew up and went through the air to the city
of Dváravatí; and she beheld it in the middle of the sea, producing
with its vast and lofty palaces an appearance as if the peaks of
the churning mountain [481] had again been flung into the ocean. She
found Aniruddha asleep in that city at night, and woke him up, and
told him that Ushá had fallen in love with him on account of having
seen him in a dream. And she took the prince, who was eager for the
interview, looking exactly as he had before appeared in Ushá's dream,
and returned from Dváravatí in a moment by the might of her magic. And
flying with him through the air, she introduced that lover secretly
into the private apartments of Ushá, who was awaiting him. When Ushá
beheld that Aniruddha arrived in bodily form, resembling the moon,
there was a movement in her limbs resembling the tide of the sea. [482]
Then she remained there with that sweet-heart who had been given
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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